3 Questions for Finding Your Buyer’s Agent “Soulmate”

I love to have a bench of the right professionals on my team at all times, in every area of my life. Fact is, life just wouldn't be nearly as smooth or as enjoyable without my roster of acupuncturist, hair stylist, physical therapist, landscaper, veterinarian, CPA and a couple of coaches, depending on the day. Any one real estate transaction is just as complicated as a whole life. To handle it well, and leave you with sustainable satisfaction in your home, your broker must possess a wide array of transactional skills, interpersonal competencies, market expertise and even relationships. Think about it: your agent will have to help you manage your emotions, your budget, your space needs, your style preferences and your time - and that takes a broadly ranging set of smarts and characteristics. Hmmm - it's a bit like the wide range of traits you might look for in your partner for life, come to think of it. So, how do you vet the agents you encounter to find your agent "soulmate?" Here are some factors to look for (and places to look in):1. Are they trustworthy? Here's the truth of the matter: if you don't trust your agent, you will have a rough go of your home buying experience, and you're setting yourself up for drama and regret for, sometimes, years following close of escrow. This is true even if your agent actually is trustworthy! But there's been a longtime legacy of skepticism and distrust between buyers and agents - a legacy you'll need to be sure doesn't taint your own relationship if you want to have a smart, smooth buying experience. If your agent is a personal friend or has worked with close friends or relatives, the trust barrier might be a non-issue. Otherwise, you might need to conduct a series of checks to ensure they have the personal integrity and honesty that will allow you to give your agent trusted advisor status. You want to know whether they are honest, but also whether they have the character and maturity to tell you the truth when it's against their best interests and when you won't like it. It'll take both to get through a tricky marketplace unscathed. Some of the integrity, honesty and character checks you can conduct include:

Check their license. The vast majority of agents are consummate professionals. A few bad apples, though, aren't - and often, they've been deemed rotten a time or two before. If you've met an agent online or through an ad, it's not at all overkill to go to your state's licensing department or division and check to be sure the agent is licensed and free of any history of troublesome discipline by the state agency.

Check their reputation. Yelp! reviews, testimonials on the agent's website itself, reviews on the agent's Trulia profile and the other content on their website, blog and social media channels can give you a sense for how their former clients rate their skill and ability, but also their honesty and integrity.

Check their references. Many agents will flat out hand you a list of past client references you can call or email to discuss how their former clients experienced working with them. Of course, most agents won't give you a reference that won't say good things, but it does give you the opportunity to dig deeper than whether or not the reference liked the agent and investigate more nuanced integrity issues like how the agent handled breaking hard news or giving hard advice.

2. Are they equipped? Not only do you need to trust your agent, from an integrity perspective, you also need to feel comfortable entrusting them with the technical aspects of your transaction, your financial well-being, your vision for your home and your dreams for the future. This is about determining whether they possess the skills and relationships they'll need to help you accomplish your objectives. Experience can be a great indicator on this point. If your agent has been in the business for awhile, ask them to share their recent transactions on homes in your target neighborhoods or with buyers in similar situations to yours. That said, there are always young agents and new agents to the business who have the smarts and skills to be fantastic representatives. In fact, some new agents are hungrier for business and have more time to devote to an intense house hunt than the star agents in their office. If your agent is new-ish to the business, ask them about their education, training, team support (e.g., their managing broker, in-house attorney, etc.) and even prior work experience - new agents bring skills from their background to bear for their clients in a powerful way. And whether your agent has 30 years of experience - or 30 weeks, ask them about their own roster of professional providers who help them get transactions closed. You will likely need to look to them with help finding and selecting at least some of the following: mortgage pros, inspectors, home improvement contractors, escrow providers. To boot, many agents serve as their clients' lifelong referral source for everything from estate planning attorneys to birthday party performers and beyond. 3. Are they a good fit? Think of the process of dating to find a lifelong mate. If you date more than a couple of people, you're bound to have the experience of going out with someone who is a legitimately great person - and a truly, deeply awful fit for you. They love Cheetos and Mountain Dew, while you grow your own food. They spend most of their spare time at church, while you spend yours shutting down the nightclubs. You want to a double-digit brood; they think the planet is overpopulated and refuse to have even a single child that might exacerbate the problem. You get the gist. The agent who will be highly effective for you is almost always the agent whose approach and expertise matches your vision for your transaction and for your home. This might seem like an obvious truism. But the reality is that I frequently see buyers struggle to score a home because they are working with their cousin Joe - a wonderful agent, honest as the day is long, who works out of state and knows not a single agent or mortgage broker in the area. Knowledge of your target neighborhood(s) and market dynamics is a huge element of fit, but some other oft-overlooked fit-makers include:

Recency of experience and success in similar situations to yours. You want an agent who has done what you want them to do, whether they have successfully helped buyers get great deals in a lagging market or helped buyers best competitors in a crazy-hot market.

Communication style and speed similarities. If you prefer text and email, you might be frustrated with an agent who is slow to respond on those channels. Similarly, if they are super formal, and you're very casual, you might find working together more awkward than with an agent who mirrors your own manner of speaking.

Making it simple to find an agent who is a great fit for your buy was the inspiration behind the new Trulia Find an Agent directory and filters. Instead of just pulling up agents who list themselves as local, we've tried to surface a bunch of other information to help you pick not just a good agent - but an agent that is a good fit. Once you search for local agents by city and state, you can filter them by:

Language (handy if someone in your family doesn't speak much English)

Property Expertise (if you want someone with condo experience, detached single family home experience, or even luxury or foreclosed property experience, etc.)

Hyperlocal Experience (to drill down as far as zip codes the agent works in)

Specializations and Certifications (here's where you can look for first time buyer's specialists or Accredited Buyer's Representatives, if that suits your fancy).

ALL: What factors did you prioritize when finding the right "fit" of an agent to work with? What factors do you wish you had paid attention to?ALL: You should follow Tara and Trulia on Facebook!